"My name is Stevie Snowflake. I am attending school because the job market is so bad. A Bachelor's degree is a must. I want to score a job as a Sports Talk Show host."
You keep living that dream, Stevie. I'm sure a degree from Bullshit Online University will really get the folks at ESPN jumping. Talk show host!!
Wait, you mean this isn't the class forum for "Sports Talk Show Hosts 101"?
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I was reading the online news a few weeks ago, and a young adult in some news story gave their profession as aspiring singer and reality TV show contestant.
I hate shitting on dreams, but some people are just asking for it.
They're kids, mostly. And too full of self steam.
DeleteI don't think a reality check is the same thing as "shitting on dreams." A reality check can be useful and instructive. I used to be part of a retention and transfer program for at-risk Latino students. I worked with a counselor, and one of his assignments was to have students write about what they thought they'd be doing in ten years.
We got a lot of responses of the "kicked back on my yacht" sort. What we'd do is to get out a calendar. "Let's see, you're in your first year of community college, so it'll take another year or two--if you work hard and get good grades--to move on to the State U. A couple years there, some more hard work and good grades, and you'll get a degree. So that's five years or so down the road. After you graduate, what do you think is going to happen that will earn the several million bucks you're planning on making? Do you think a BA in business is THAT valuable?"
It's not just kids who are deluded, either. I had a friend, let's call her C., who was earning good money, $60-80K/year, as a senior flight attendant for USA Air. When the airline company found itself in financial trouble, it offered a two-year furlough to employees. They'd get the time off (with no pay) to explore other career opportunities, and they'd be able to return to work, if they chose to, after their furloughs with no loss of seniority.
C. was intelligent, organized, hard-working, and all the rest--besides being drop-dead beautiful and charming. She figured she could get a $45K/year job pretty easily. Even though this was several years before the recession, C. soon found out that good jobs don't grow on trees. She thought she'd go back to school, but then she realized that a college education takes four whole years. The real estate market was booming, so C. got her realtor's license and found out that 10 percent of realtors get 90 percent of the business. She also found out that cold-calling people in the phone book was no fun at all.
So she went back to work as a flight attendant. 9/11 happened, C. developed a real fear of flying, and that was the end of that story, too.
Dunno what ever happened to her. She kind of freaked out and disappeared. But students need reality checks, even if it involves shitting on their dreams. When they're older, a reality check is much harder and really, really shitty.
I'm sure you'll also be earning $250,000 your first year out...
ReplyDeleteGive `em the beat-down....tell them the are the shit between a muzhik's toes.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's "they are the shit", not "the shit."
DeleteAlso call them the "motherfuckest", hell, even use the phrase: "Of all the motherfuckers in the world, you the motherfuckest!"
What a shame he isn't someone who may or may not be a pretty young woman who may or may not have a serious gambling habit. He'd be perfect for ESPN.
ReplyDeletehttp://deadspin.com/5906658/is-an-espn-columnist-scamming-people-on-the-internet
And I don't give a tea party if you don't like that I've posted a link.
Enjoyed it.
DeleteIs it further evidence that I have Asperger's syndrome that I'm fixated on the fact that the originator of the graphic knew snowflakes have something to do with hexagons, but then superimposed branches with D8h symmetry?
ReplyDeleteWhat were we talking about?
The branches have 8 fold symmetry but the whole flake has d4h symmetry, right? I used to be good at this but it's been a while.
DeleteThe hexagon part is like benzene, that's D6h. The branches are D8h. There are verticle symmetry planes between the ones containing the branches. It's the opposite - there are 4 planes on the branches and 4 planes between the branches - so that makes it 8. I only know this b/c I did a crap load of work with benzene.
DeleteNow, the molecules as a whole... I'm going to guess it would be D2h because the C6 and C8 axes for the two parts are not elements for the other part, but everything else would hold.
Does your wife have as much trouble listening to this as my husband does? We've been married almost 6 years. He's getting really good at holding the smile to the end of the explanation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYou're right. D2h.
DeleteMrs. Beaker's patience is limitless, or maybe we just haven't reached its limits yet.
If this is the peak of your welcome forum, I'd hate to see what is going on in the valley.
ReplyDeletewell-caught. Let me fix that.
Delete